So you're almost at the end of the show, and things are looking very uncertain but you know the show's about to end. That's when you know this trope is about to kick in. The Eleven O'Clock Number is a song in a musical placed near the end of the second act, before the plot's loose ends are tied up. The song usually represents an emotional turning point or revelation for the main character(s) and is almost always the last number in the show that isn't a reprise of an earlier song or the absolute final song. The term is a holdover from the days when all musicals started at 8:30 PM and had to have a climactic song around 11:00, because it was preferable to have audiences out shortly afterwards.

"The Fire Within Me" from "Little Women". Starting as Jo's second BSOD Song after "Astonishing", it culminates with her inspiration for writing "Little Women" coming from her sisters. It's arguably the best-written song in the show.

"Gimme Gimme" from "Thoroughly Modern Millie" is the posterchild for this trope.

Show Boat originally had an 11:00 song to show off Magnolia's daughter, Kim (here played by the same actress as Magnolia) in a 1920s-type production number. The original 11:00 song, "It's Getting Hotter in the North" (based on Magnolia's Leitmotif), was cut and replaced by a reprise of "Why Do I Love You" with impersonations and a jazz dance. The London production used an entirely new 11:00 song, "Dance Away The Night." The 1936 film version built up an elaborate production number around the Movie Bonus Song "Gallivantin' Around," which fell victim to editing before it was released. The 1946 Broadway revival used yet another newly written song, "Nobody Else But Me," but dropped the number without replacement when it went on tour. The 1994 Broadway revival replaced it with a dance number, "Kim's Charleston."

"I Believe" In The Book of Mormon could technically be this, even though it isn't near the end of the musical.

Many Verdi operas have one of these, such as "D'amor sull'ali rosee" from Il trovatore and "Tu che le vanità" from Don Carlo. Soprano Leontyne Price was famous for nailing these after the rest of the cast had tired.

Stephen Sondheim's Follies has not one but four 11 o'clock numbers, one for each of the principal characters: the comic patter song "Buddy's Blues," the torch ballad "Losing My Mind," the Star Lady turn "The Story of Lucy and Jessie," and, finally, the top-hat-and-tails ditty "Live, Laugh, Love," which features a twist ending: as debonair Ben realizes that the cheery words he's singing are a horrible lie, he repeatedly flubs the lyrics and finally has a breakdown onstage.

The concert sequence from The Sound of Music, which has "Edelweiss" in between an elaborate reprise of "Do-Re-Mi" and a plain repetition of "So Long, Farewell."

In The Cat and the Fiddle, Shirley jazzes up the final scene with "Hh! Cha Cha!" (sic), which reuses part of "Why Do I Love You" from Show Boat as a countermelody.

Asia's "Heat of the Moment," sung a capella by Cartman and the entire House of Representatives in the South Park episode "Kenny Dies." Singing the song together motivates the representatives into passing stem cell research, Cartman's goal through the episode.

"It's Always Love" from Sugar. is the third-to-last song. "When You Meet a Man in Chicago" is the second-to-last, but it doesn't fit the "revelation/turning point" part as well (and was originally a reprise anyway), while "It's Always Love" starts with one of the male leads denouncing love, and ends with him admitting that he's in love.

A Concept Album example; "This Christmas Day" from Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve and Other Stories", although the argument could be made for "Old City Bar". There are a few other songs in the album following these two, but they're mostly bonus tracks.

"First Dance" in Steeleye Span's Concept Album of Wintersmith. It's the point in the book where Tiffany turns the tables on the wintersmith. After that on the album, there's an instrumental of the Dark Morris itself, a celebratory song about the Summer Lady's return, and two thematic epilogues, one about A'Tuin and one about Sir Terry. But the story itself is resolved.

"Keeping Cool with Coolidge" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes literally jazzes up the show when the characters and audience are getting tired of Gay Paree.

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